Kentucky takes action to stem breakdowns

LEXINGTON, Ky. - State veterinary personnel in Kentucky have enacted additional measures to attempt to identify horses who are at greater risk for racing injuries since a spate of breakdowns in mid-September at Churchill Downs, but have yet to identify any common factors that may have contributed to the fatalities, according to the state’s head equine veterinarian and its equine medical director.

The additional measures have included identifying horses at entry time that may have one or more additional risk factors for injury so that veterinarians can examine those horses prior to raceday, when all horses are subject to veterinary examination, according to Mary Scollay, the equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Those risk factors, such as length of time between starts, have been identified through results generated from epidemiological examinations of data in the Equine Injury Database, a collaborative racing-industry effort.

Scollay said that she believed the additional exams have benefited horses and trainers, some of whom may not have been aware that their horses were at greater risk for injury prior to being identified for a post-entry exam.

“Some of those exams have resulted in trainers withdrawing horses prior to the race, so it may be picking everyone’s heads up a bit,” Scollay said, during a meeting of the KHRC on Tuesday.

Over September 20-23, four horses suffered catastrophic injuries during races at Churchill Downs, and two more fatally broke down during training hours, according to Scollay. That set off alarm bells at the commission, at Churchill, and within the ranks of horsemen based at the Louisville track, which will host the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 2-3.

Just after the breakdowns occurred, Churchill brought in Mick Peterson, a racing-surface specialist based at the University of Kentucky, to conduct a review of the track, both under dry and wet conditions, and Peterson concluded that the surface “was as consistent as it has ever been,” according to Kevin Flanery, the president of Churchill Downs. Flanery was asked to speak about Peterson’s analysis at the KHRC meeting by the commission’s chairman, Frank Kling.

Scollay said that she had reviewed the racing and training records of all six horses that broke down and found that the records would not have produced any red flags for risk assessment under the list of factors identified by the injury database.

“None of the affected horses stood out in any of those areas,” Scollay said. Scollay added that necropsy reports on the horses had not yet been completed.

Breakdowns are multifactorial, and it is often difficult, if not impossible, to find common elements to a spate of catastrophic injuries or determine whether a cluster was nothing more than a statistical abnormality. According to long-term injury data, U.S. racehorses suffer fatal breakdowns at a rate of approximately 1.8 horses per 1,000 starts (using the average for the past nine years), but those rates can vary widely over the short-term and over different surfaces.

Veterinary officials also revealed during the Tuesday meeting that five horses suffered fatal musculoskeletal injuries during the recent Ellis Park summer meet, a number far higher than at previous meets at the track. Four of those horses broke down in races conducted over the turf course, the veterinary officials said, leading to a call by the KHRC for Ellis to have its grass surface examined by Peterson.

Scollay said that Ellis Park management had agreed to the review, with a goal of having the Ellis surface “be consistent with what all of our Thoroughbred racetracks are doing.”

In addition, two horses suffered fatal musculoskeletal breakdowns during the five-day all-turf meeting at Kentucky Downs in early September, a number that works out to two breakdowns per 550 starts, although from a small sample set. All told, the number of breakdowns in the summer and early fall at Kentucky tracks was likely the worst it has been in years.

O Also at the meeting, the commission unanimously approved a 2019 race dates schedule that is nearly identical to the schedule for 2018. However, the commission gave only conditional approval to the dates requested by Turfway Park, pending approval of an agreement between horsemen and track management. Under Kentucky statute, dates have to be approved by Nov. 1.

Marty Maline, the executive director of the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said after the meeting that there were no issues holding up the approval of the agreement, only that both sides had gotten a late start to the negotiations. He said he fully expected the agreement to be approved before Nov. 1.